Updating the Y-Wing

[garhkal]

That sounds good.. Are you keeping the rear gunner? Maybe make his seat a dedicated bombadier slot..
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

Sweet!!! Always wondered why MORE fighters are not that way. Pilot just pilots, firing is left to a dedicated gunner.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[FVBonura]

I mentioned this in another thread but those doing a deep dive on Y-wing research might consider reading, "Young Jedi Knights: Darkest Knight".

The novel takes place in 23 ABY, where the Wookiees of Kashyyyk are implementing a Service Life Extension Program for the old outdated Y-wing that is now in its fifth or maybe sixth decade of service. Y-wings are upgraded with cutting-edge aerospace systems to compete with newer enemy assets.
_________________
Star Wars Deckplans Alliance
Star Wars Prequel Commentary

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

[Impaler]

Have you considered the M-class? https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/M-class_fighter

It's essentially a heavier 3 engine Y-wing-ish craft and it's stats look to be a completly blank slate other then it posessing 2 heavy laser cannons and 2 crew which should put it in the assault fighter catagory.

It's said to uses 'salvaged' Y-wing engines so I imagine this vessel is actually something the Rebels kit bashed together themselves rather then an official Koensayr product.

One of the ways to 'extend' the life of a fighter might be to literally canabalize it to construct the 'successor' fighter. I've always imagined that Rebels made most of their own X-wings (because Incom was nationalized by the Empire and only the design was smuggled to the Rebels) and they did so mostly by canabolizing the common Z-95 Headhunters that could be found and purchasesed in the outer rim. They might need 2 Z-95 to make one X-wing, or one Z-95 and a bunch of extra parts, but that would still be a good trade either way as the Z-95 was obsolete and 2 damaged or brokendown ones could be purchased quite cheaply.


So I imagine this to be an analagouse process for the Y-wing, canabolizing the older fighter to make something better and particularly faster and more survivable for their limited pilot corps. Canonicaly the M-class is present at Hoth (being in one comic book set pre-invasion) and it presumably a rare craft as it's never seen again. So the Rebels made M-class conversions primarily to reuse broken down and damaged Y-wings and to have an even heavier fighter-bomber then the Y-wing prior to the introduction of the B-wing which was superior to it in most aspects, M-class fighters often just continued to serve with Y-wing squadron from which they had been canabalized with the craft generally flown by the squadron leader who would make the first bombing run and take the brunt of enemy fire and hopefully survive and continue to lead and mentor the squadron due to the improved speed and defense. The Rebels only made small numbers of M-class because converting Z-95's was the higher priority and the Y-wings were deemed adaquate as they were while stock Z-95's were deathtraps and the benifit of upgrading to an X-wing was huge. Finally the introduction of the B-wing halted all further M conversions for the remainder of the war.

But post war as time goes on the Y-wing would become more and more outdated and an upgrade was clearly needed. New Republic veterans that had flown alongside the M-class (most M pilots had actually perished in battle and it was only the junior members of the squadrons which now remembered the craft that their leaders had flown) and the mechanics which done the conversions petitioned Koensayr to design a fully modernized varient and this became the proper M-wing. It was still made by canabalizing 2 existing Y-wings and followed the basic form of the M-class but with several improvements and 30% new parts that Koensayr could sell, the New Republic began a mass conversion program, turning 2 Y squadrons into 1 M squadron and within a few years only a few holdouts and unaffiliated local resistance groups would still be utilizing Y-wings of any configuration. Koensayr's hope for orders for newly produced M-wings would never materialize though, the New Republic only felt the M-wing conversion was a usefull way to deal with there obsolete Y-wing's (and avoid the public outcry of a full retirment of a fighter which had been the 'work horse that won the war, while the X-wing got the glory') and wanted newly built bombers like the K-wing for any new purchases.

The Y-wings by this point decades old and battered structural framing was completly replaced and this was the single largest new compoment in the conversion, but most other parts were reused. The bubble turret ion cannons were canabalized into two remote controled turrets one dorsal the other ventral giving the craft full defensive fire coverage a considerable improvement over the M-class fixed forward ion cannons which were all the rebels could manage in their hasty wartime conversions, the bombedier would operate these guns until the moment a bombing run started at which point they would be locked foraward and fire-linked with the laser cannons already under the pilots control. The Y-wings old sensor domes on the forward end of the engine nacelles would be scrapped entirly as was done in the M-class and replaced with better sensors housed under and alongside the cockpit which unlike the M-class (which never even had a standard cockpit, sometimes being a Y-wings sometimes the canabalized cockpit from another vessel) was now side-by-side and symetrical giving either crewmember the ability to pilot, bomb or operate the remote turrets and most importantly rest. The crafts bombload and salvo size like the M-class was comperable to the B-wings but it's laser cannons remained from the Y-wings with only a modest rate of fire incresse allowed by updated cooling systems which resolved one of the Y-wing's and M-classes largest weakness. Thus the M-wing was still outgunned by the B-wing but made up for it with higher speed and defensive fire, being slightly faster then the rebel Y-wing though no more manuverable due to the 3rd engines central location being less efficient in turning. Shielding also improved slightly over the Y-wings but did not match the B-wings. The one area where it did exceed the original B-wing was sensors and electronics, being fully modern in both it could exceed the accuracy of the B-wing and had the best jammers available at the time. Unfortunatly parrelel modernization of the B-wing by Slayn&Korpal would within the timeframe of the mass M-wing conversion also see it upgraded to the same level and the M-wing never enjoyed any period of superiority.

Ultimatly the M-wing succeded in it's goal of being capable of the Y-wings mission set but not needing the fighter escorts which all Y-wing missions would by this time routinely be given for any target that had even the possibility of defensive fighter coverage. Thus an entire fighter escort could be saved and the M-wing revived the original Clone Wars capability of a self-escorting medium bomber which had slipped from the Y-wing and the craft were able to give another generation of service in their new form.

[CRMcNeill]

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but this post is about Y-Wings. Frankly, I find the M-Wing underwhelming. Not that I object to a ship pieced together using spare Y-Wing components (that was the route I went with the H-Wing), but there really isn’t a lot there to work with.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index